Doctor Who Origins: Susan
by Damo B
Summary: What happened to Susan's parents? Why is she with her grandfather and not with them? Is Susan a Timelady or just Gallifreyan? Read to find out the possible answers to all those questions.


Doctor Who Origins: Susan

Gallfrey, winter, The Doctor is 243 years old, studying medicine at the academy. Susan is 7, it is 2 days before her eigth birthday. She looks forward to this birthday as she has been selected as one of the children of Gallifrey to look into The Eternal Schism and become a Timelady herself.

Susan's parents are engineers at the Timelord Citadel. They are working on a faulty heating unit within the citadel around midight. The Doctor and Susan are at home, asleep.

Susan's parents have just finished fixing the heating unit and are putting the safety cover back in place when lightning strikes, killing them both without the chance to regenerate. Borusa wakes both The Doctor and Susan when he knocks on their door to deliver the terrible news. The Doctor freezes up in shock while holding Susan in his arms, who is in floods of tears. Borusa excuses himself so they may grieve with privacy.

Just outside the door, before he has a chance to move away, Borusa hears Susan ask the Doctor to take a TARDIS back in time amd prevent the accident from occurring. The Doctor snaps out of shock and tells her to never ask for such an action, explaining he once travelled back in time in an attempt to save his own parents lives and they suffered an even worse death as a result, emphasising it being the reason there are laws against changing history. Susan accepts this and apologises for asking to which The Doctor reassures her it's understandable she asked but he's glad she understands why it's impossible.

Borusa walks away from the door, worried that Susan should not become a Timelady, that gaining knowledge of time travel may be a dangerous thing for her while she grieves her loss, that despite the fact she ensured The Doctor she understands, she may still be tempted to try anyway. He heads straight to the high council and recommends withdrawing her from selection, which they accept and agree with.

The Doctor is furious the next day when the high council inform him of their decision. He insists it was just a temporary moment of weakness of her part, and assures them that now she understands the dangers of attempting to alter or change the course of history, Susan would never pose such a threat. His pleas fall upon deaf ears, however, as the high council have already made up their minds, she is not to become a Timelady.

The Doctor storms out of the citadel, taking Susan home. He tells her of their decision, assuring her it is not a decision he will go with. He promises her she WILL become a Timelady, even if it means defying the high council and breaking their laws to make it happen. Susan tries to tell her grandfather she doesn't want to cause such problems but he insists on making it happen. She looks hopeful and thanks him for whatever he can try to do.

The Doctor devises a plan, disable all security systems to distract the Timelords, whilst Susan sneaks into the Sacred Chamber, the room which contains the Eternal Schism. While she looks into this and becomes a Timelady, The Doctor will steal a TARDIS an have it materialise around her. Then they can leave Gallifrey.

They put the plan into action on her eigth birthday. To Susan's amazement it works just as The Doctor had planned, however, the Timelords manage to get the security systems up and running again slightly quicker than The Doctor had anticipated.

Although unaware of Susan becoming a Timelady, the Timelords do see a TARDIS capsule has just been taken. The TARDIS is out of range before they get a chance to attempt to recall it, however, so they use a different tactic instead. They reach into The Doctor's Matrix, his personal timeline, and put a block on his access to memories of coordinates for times and places. In effect, this means be will fly blindly, never knowing where he shall end up.

It doesn't take long for The Doctor to realize the restriction on his memories, but he puts Susan's worry to rest by looking on the bright side and reassuring her it will make their journey more fun if they never know where they are going.

Off flies the TARDIS through the time vortex. To where? To when? Even The Doctor does not not know.


End file.
